Soft music was played in the restaurant, which was paired with the sound of forks and knives hitting each other as people were eating.

They were all people who dressed in clothing that, if sold, could feed an entire country of starving children. They were drinking and eating, as if there was no tomorrow, emptying their plates one by one.

Yet they were crying.

Tears flowed from their eyes, while they showed the food down of their mouth.

Their food was actually not food.

It was money.

Gold coins, diamonds, crystals, paper money, any type of money, they were forced to eat it. Their glasses even had liquid metals in them, that didn’t burn their insides when drunk.

This was the fate of the sinners of Gluttony. Forced to eat the money they spent on the food they eat in their life, always staying hungry and carving for something. The sinners of Greed also suffered. They were the servants, their bodies controlled like puppets, forced to bring money to the gluttons and forced to watch as they eat it.

“This is tasteless.”

I stud in the middle of this heap of suffering completely disgusted. I admit I tortured people, experimented on them, hell I even admit that I ate them, but I always made sure that I will kill them afterward (least those who looked like were in pain). Call it the spark of humanity in my wretched soul fragment.

At least the air smelled good. After hundreds of years of being tortured like this, most of the people here went insane, making my stomach rumble a little.

One of the waiters came at me and bowed before me.

“Mr. Melino, we have expected you. Please follow me to your table.”

I nodded and followed him.

my table was at the very back of the restaurant.

It was nice, fancy, it even had a rose in a vase and candles. It would even be romantic if there wasn’t the moaning of the tortured around us.

I sat on my chair and opened the small booklet that was put on my plate.

It wasn’t a menu.

“Sorry for being late. Things have become such a mess.”

Lukas, the devil himself, sat before me, wearing his usual red suit. His face and cloth were dirtied by dust and what I could tell blood, but it didn’t seem to bother him.

“No problem. I wasn’t waiting for long.”

Considering that I just arrived.

He nodded and snapped his fingers. Immediately, several waiters appeared each carrying a different type of food.

“Good evening gentlemen. Tonight, we have specially prepared plates that satisfy your culinary taste. For Mr. Lukas, we have prepared a special goat meat soup, followed by roasted goat ribs accompanied with fried potatoes, ending in an ice cream made from goat blood.”

As he spoke, he put some of the dishes before Lukas, each looking quite appetizing.

“As for Mr. Melino, we have prepared a lovely goulash filled with orc meat and red-death pepper. This plate will be followed by a minotaur hamburger stake filled with mozzarella cheese, covered with a special sauce made from the madness of a desperate lover who killed herself, accompanied by stake-fries and some cursed salad. For dessert, we will serve a lovely cherry-chocolate cake with a side of peach ice cream.”

They put the plates down, showing me the succulent dishes.

Oh, boy I’m going to eat well today!

“A little wine?”

A bottle materialized in his hand and poured some for me.

“I got this from Icor. Supposedly it has been made by monks who lived at the top of a mountain that almost touched the heavens.”

I took a sip from it savoring its taste.

From the memories that I gathered, I could tell that it was quality wine, but I personally didn’t like it.

“Thank you. It's rare to have a moment of peace like this.”

“I can understand. I heard that your enterprise is going well. How many worlds have you slipped into? 30? 40?”

“Please don’t exaggerate. I have only discovered around twenty, but most of them are inhospitable for my troops, giving me a real headache. Hopefully with my new minions’ things will go much easier.”

While talking I started eating. The soup was delicious, it was meaty and spicy just as I liked it.

“Very good. I myself never managed to send my people to other worlds. I’m afraid hell is only a one-way trip for some.”

Really? Then have I been wasting my time with all those demon summonings?

“Mr. Lukas, I appreciate your dinner invitation, but may I ask, why did you call for me?”

“Please lose the formalities with me, it makes me feel old. And as the reason I called for you.” he emptied his glass of wine.” I need your help.”

Oh?

“Is it connected to these lists of names?”

I lifted the booklet up, containing several names, locations, and causes of death.

“Right, the thing is I served up.” He put down his fork and looked at the book. “Those are the names of all the heroes that died in this month.”

“…There are almost a hundred different names in this thing? How is that even possible.”

“Some of the members of our group have robbed my vault, sending almost an entire army of reincarnated heroes.”

“And they died? Just like that?”

I mean not all of them are strong, but they are technically supper soldiers on steroids what the hell happened.”

“The other gods reacted and sent their own personal enforcers there, heroes mixed with angels. They literally carpet-bombed them to death, leaving no survivors. Now they started to patrol the other worlds that are under their control, trying to hunt down any reincarnated hero.” He lent forward his eyes burning with rage. “ These fuckers even started to mess with the lives of mortals, purging them of any evil. Some went as far as killing every sentient living being aside from humans.”

“And you want me to fix it. How? By reincarnating more heroes?”

“Actually, I want you to go all out. It seems like war is upon us and I want to be the first person who will make a move.”

Sigh, war. So, it finally came. Even though I was preparing for it. a part of me always hoped this day never come.

“Alright then. But I will need a lot of things and time to start. From what I can guess from your tone, you won’t fight directly, so I believe that being a backer is fair.”

“Oh, and what makes you think that?”

He acted surprised and hurt, but his smile betrayed him.

“Please I meat people like you before. You see us like subordinates, disposable pawns. You plan to use us as muscle while you give us orders in the form of objections or threats. If one of us dies, there won’t be any problem you will just cut ties with them, maybe even take his troops for your own. The funniest thing is, when the war erupts, we who helped you start it, won1t have any place to refuse you, shacking ourselves to you. Or at least that what I would plan out.”

There was a tense silence between us before the devil himself started to laugh so hard he almost fell off from his table.

The sound of tableware stopped and everybody was looking at us.

“Am I so far away from the mark?”

“HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHANONONONON no, you are not! Ugh, man, it has been centuries since somebody made me laugh so hard!” he breathed deeply composing himself enough to talk normally. “Truth to be told, this was actually my plan. Not my greatest scam but it would have worked with those idiots. I have already tried several of them with this book.”

“I guessed that much. You put my hero's name in it. All three of them dead by spontaneous spearing.”

“Yes, yes, that’s an error on my part, but most of them didn’t even open it. they just tossed it aside and ate like pigs! I guess you do deserve the name Dealmaker.”

“I am blushing.” I pulled aside the empty soup bowl and attacked the hamburgers. “ This is what I am proposing. Your help and resources will greatly help me in my personal business, but I hate the idea of being somebody’s subordinate. So, I want to be on an equal footing with you.”

“You want us to be partners? Sorry but you don’t possess anything that interests me so-“

“Even my results on experimenting on gods?”

The fork in his hand stopped, his mouth wide open.

I didn’t mind telling him this, since this wasn’t even part of my most guarded secrets.

“That’s right. I have been experimenting with gods. Thanks to them, I created various weapons and soldiers who in my opinion can wipe the heroes out of the board.”

“…And how much of them do you have?”

“As much as I need. So do we have a deal, Mr. Lucifer?”

Lukas kept quiet for several seconds before an evil grin formed on his face.

“We have a deal. Let’s make the details clearer while we eat. also, we need to make a contract about this. Do you have one with you?”

I reached into my pocket and took out a pen and a piece of pergamin.

“This is going to be fun.”

*****

Stalker POV:

“That stupid wore!”

He smashed the table into bits with his own fist which was coated in his own energy.

Ever since he came back home he has been in this state, angrily breaking everything he found, even the maids, the poor things almost died from the injuries they received.

“I will kill her! How dare she look down on me! I will kill her with my own hands.”

Because of his family’s business, which stretched out all over the Nation, the only place humans could live, he has never been treated like this. He only needed to ask for something, and somebody would bring it to him, no matter how hard or impossible it was. Naturally, it was a shock to him that a woman that he chose rejected him.

In the beginning, his marriage with her was arranged between their father in the hope of merging the two companies into a world-dominating force. He wasn’t happy about it, but after he found out how she looked he warmed up to the idea. Polygamy was legal in this world so even if her personality doesn't match with his, he could always find another wife.

She has the opportunity to marry ME yet she like that!

the real reason that he was pissed was that he was so easily defeated. Being the heir of a big company, he was trained by top-class power users, yet he was blasted away as if he was nothing but a paper figurine.

“I will fucking flatten her!”

“Johnny.~”

He stopped smashing his stuff, looking around in his room.

“Who is it? Show yourself!”

“Johnny.~”

It came from the mirror.

He remembered breaking it into pieces when he arrived home, but it was now hanging on the wall, without any cracks.

He approached it slowly, realizing that something was wrong with it.

He couldn’t see his reflection in it.

“What the-“

Before he could finish talking, an invisible force grabbed him and dragged him to the mirror that swallowed him whole.

*****

Ash POV:

“Lai, Are you alright?”

We walked back home. Today was the first day in school so the clubs didn’t start today, giving me so much free time.

‘Just a bad feeling. Something’s been bothering for a while.’

“Yeah, that exploding bird those stick in your head.”

‘I am not thinking about the bird. It's more the thing which was in it that bothers me.’

“Inside? Do you mean that it was possessed by something? Is it like you?”

‘If it is then we are all in danger. My… siblings aren’t the warmest people in the world. Especially the oldest.’

“What is his deal?”

‘He is a sociopath who enjoys killing people. He caused immeasurable damages to everything he touched. I remember, before we all got separated, he unleashed an army of monsters on a city.’

“That sounds horrible.”

‘If he is here, then we need to be ready for anything.’

While we were talking, I was not looking, and I found myself in an alleyway.

When I was in it middle several figures came out of the shadows blocking my way.

They were dressed in an old-style suit with their faces hidden behind masks resembling plague doctors.

‘Ash, these guys-‘

“-Are trouble? Yeah, I can tell.”

At the same time, the assailants slowly started to walk towards us.

“Fire Ball!”

I materialize some flames in my hand and hurled them towards them.

The attack stopped right in the midair, before vanishing, not even getting close to my target.

“What? How?”

‘Above!’

I jumped back just in time, where I was standing a man fell from the sky, planting a bizarrely curved knife into the ground.

“Damn it, it’s been a while since the last time I missed my first strike.”

He stood up, spinning the knife in his hand.

He also wore an old-fashioned suit, paired with a black long coat and a top hat. He also had a mask, that showed an ugly monster grimacing which had green shining eyes.

‘Ash, run! This guy isn’t human!’

Not human?

“Who are you? Are you a giga?”

“A giga?” The man tilted his head still spinning his knife.” Boy, do I look like one of those insects? I am just your friendly reincarnated serial killer, who is just doing a favor for his savior.” he stopped his blade and pointed it at me. “I am doing you a favor, boy. The man I am working for has huge plans for this place which include mass murder and destruction. By killing you I am giving you a huge favor, a favor so big you can’t imagine, so return the FAVOR by dying!”

From his empty hands, several syringes appeared that he threw with deadly accuracy towards my face.

‘Telekinesis!”

Similarly, with my magic, the syringes stopped in the air, before being crushed into dust.

“Oh my! Oh my! Oh my! You can do that too! Are you also blessed by him? Did he bring you back to life? Do you ow him a favor as well?”

“What are you talking about? Who are you working for?”

“OHOHO! So, you don’t know! Man, you are so interesting!” He snapped his fingers making a dark energy swirl around him. “ I decided that you are so interesting that I won’t kill you! Saving the best for last! But I will tell you something! The one who called us is called…”

He and his henchman disappeared in the tumult of energy leaving only a name behind. A name that made the being in my head shake in fear.

‘The Dealmaker.”